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Someting i love is the ability to hide into the fog althought i don't love how fog is looking like. It could make it very interesting ot get a map with real island (you can be destroyed by reaching one) were people can hide and make traps.

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I totally agree on the topic of the camera view. It mostly reduces the field of view. Camera view should be able to zoomed out at a considerably distance. Otherwise it is like first person view, we also need a 3rd person view which places the camera at some further distance than right now. Otherwise, you easly lose the grasp on the instance.

Well, for the speed of the game I think the opposite. You reach your max speed in 30-40 seconds even with HMS Victory. That is IMO more than fast enough.

I would actually like to walk around the deck and do away with third person all together.

With a few tweaks I like the camera system as it is. The only thing I find annoying is sometimes not being able to get to the rear of fore deck fast enough because I end up on one of the sides.

It not only immerses the player but makes it challenging to shoot from a moving platform the way it is realistic to do so. Watching for the GOD like eye in the sky is something people always naturally ask for

because they always want to go for easy. What makes this game unique is that you do have to take ranging shots and watch them fall with the telescope. Zooming out in third person may as well be playing empire total war.

I like the fact I cannot zoom out into wonder woman view too far.

Remember if the player gets too much unrealistic power the game is boring because there is nothing to do.

In mechwarrior online they solved the people who wanted third person by making a little flashing camera drone hover over the mechs head whenever somebody used this mode while removing a lot of sensor information.

Also the zoom out was not great just like in this game. This little camera drone showed other players that the technology existed to look from above like a god and forced players back into the cockpit to play like real mechwarrior pilots.

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It's nopt that hard to pvp lonely, it's just that the game seems not adapt to team play atm. In 1v1it's really interesting but as soon as you add teamates it brcome to be a mess

Agreed, and not dissimilar to many others. One game (from way back in the archives ) that started out similarly but with some focus players began to understand different roles, was Tribes. I don't see that this would be that much different. not everyone is going to show up for a battle in an HMS Victory ship of the line, there will be different size ships with differing speeds and armament and therefor differing roles. Smaller ships might be sniping or used as bait to lure in the opposition or race in, rake the stern of an enemy ship with limited sail capacity remaining.

Since this is test and there are no "organizations" that are training together there will be chaos. Out of that should come some best practices and standards that most will utilize to the benefit of their team.

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There is also the issue that it isn't hard to get out of position and then be out of the fight.

Yesterday I played a pve battle.I was sailing in a direction and then my Ai team mates all turned rammed me and headed in their preordained direction and the enemy did the same.

So I found my self a little out of the fight.

Just trying to tack and head back to the fight took an eternity.After that I thought to myself I was going to be a frigate captain instead.It convinced me I would rather more manouverabilty than firepower.

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Noone mentioned it before, but the thing I most like in NA is definitely the OCEAN!. Especialy, the waves are very vell made. Dont know which Foruier function you are using but a very good job there. It feels real because it does not look like repeatative. Foaming of the waves also look cool. KUDOS to the waves!

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Today I've played a battle, I was playing on low graphics, it works acceptable 20-50 fps jumping, but average is 30 fps, so it's good.

What I love in NA: The realism in the game, The open world, and the beauty of the ships

What should be improved: I'm not sure, but I think it would be a bit better if we could actually see sailors at every cannons to be realistic, the performance for not high end pc's I mean currently i have "normal" laptop as I've written, but its working good on low around 30 fps, and yeah the nature and the weather should improve a bit too, its already good, but you know like the assassins creed 3 ships and 4 stuff

Things about hate in NA: That it's currently in testing not full version other than that I think it will be an awesome game!

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Love: 1.Graphics. With my Radeon R7 200 I have graphics set to ultra and Im getting 30-45 fps! Outstanding. Performance is very good and visuals are outstanding. Waves are the best Ive seen in a game and I should know being a former sailor.

2. Ship models are just awesome.

3. The fact that we can come alongside and board. I guess Im a pirate at heart.

2. Damage modeling could look better. I like that wood chips fly around and holes appear in hull and sails. But I think some more work and they'll be even better. Gunports take in water in sharp turns or high seas.

3. land graphics and would like to see more weather; rain, snow, freaking hot sun, serious waves..

Hate: 1. Cant say I hate anything but would like to see a single player mode that includes training.

2. We could use some ship traffic, some civilian transports, etc.

3. No campaign. I know its early but thought I would throw this out there. I'd love to see a campaign that brought you to the "Admiralty" to receive orders, planning for missions, stocking supplies, capturing enemy ships and bases, etc.

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sound cues being used to convey information in-world. The whistles, bells, etc. Do more of this! if enemies are near by they should be screaming at eachother to load/fire. Use "in-world" ways to communicate to the player any time you can and keep the HUD elements minimal. Birds to designate nearby land etc.

performance and stability is excellent for an alpha

Good example of the digital download era "sim renaissance" - indepth simulation going on under the hood but quite accessible and comparitively easy to understand. Sleekly designed. The focus is on the experience and not on your interface to it. A major improvement from the "old style" of sims.

could be improved:

sky needs to be more high res and a little bit less muddy at the horizon. The whole game is so picturesque and i think the sky is the only thing letting the environment down visually.

Crew behaviour on deck is cool but why are they constantly playing an animation as if they're shoving the gun forwards? Guns also dont recoil, turn, or elevate, and their hatches dont close. Bustling sounds of reloading would be great too.

no apparent representation of dead crew other than the number on the HUD (keep information off the hud and in the game world wherever you can!)

I'd like to be able to customise the hud a lot more. With a game that looks this good I have every reason to want to keep numbers and boxes off it as much as i can.

dislike:

I expected more from the damage model. I am a little disappointed that i havent seen a single fire or mast breaking. Never saw a magazine go off.

if you spring a leak it's essentially game over but you need to wait it out. Is there something you can do about the leaks which I don't know about?

PvE constantly matches players against ~2x as many enemy. What's the idea of this?

The progression system is flawed. espescially when it pits you against uneven teams. Good sailing and gunnery are not rewarded and its largely left up to chance whether you can advance to the next ship.

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1. Progression system - the way it is set up, you are going to have most of the testers stuck in Lynxes and smaller fore-and-aft vessels for a while. I have about 10 PvE matches under my belt atm, yet to have a game even close to a win.

2. PvE system - another thing hampering the "grind", PvE battles are kind of ridiculous, especially for us new captains, there isn't much a handful of Lynxes captained by newcomers can do to defeat an entire squadron of similarly-armed craft plus a 16-gun brig. I don't know how long these sea trials are going to last but the way things are going I doubt most of us will be able to provide feedback on anything with more than two masts.

3. Heeling seems a bit over the top sometimes, obviously it is something that is necessarily a factor in a sailing game, but I have had multiple moments where I was literally a stone's throw, hell, a bowling ball's throw, from an enemy vessel and did not have the elevation/depression to effectively fire, in light to moderate winds. I can't say I've ever served on a sailing warship so I can't speak to that as far as realism goes but my first impression is that it is a little over the top, no pun intended. Reading around the forums though, this might be more of a problem for the lighter fore-and-aft rigged craft, but hell I wouldn't know, since I'm essentially a career Lynx commander as it stands.

Improvements

1. Sounds - Might be getting picky here, sounds are okay as it stands, but not quite as immersive as they could be. Cannon fire is a little underwhelming. Maybe some dialogue from the crew.

2. More crew - Would like to see more crew members walking around, doing things, climbing the shrouds, laying aloft on the yards, etc.

3. Visible damage - It is okay as it is but could be better. I would like to see chunks visibly missing from bulwarks, two gunports being smashed into one, dead and wounded crew, blood pouring out of the scuppers, that sort of thing

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3. Heeling seems a bit over the top sometimes, obviously it is something that is necessarily a factor in a sailing game, but I have had multiple moments where I was literally a stone's throw, hell, a bowling ball's throw, from an enemy vessel and did not have the elevation/depression to effectively fire, in light to moderate winds. I can't say I've ever served on a sailing warship so I can't speak to that as far as realism goes but my first impression is that it is a little over the top, no pun intended. Reading around the forums though, this might be more of a problem for the lighter fore-and-aft rigged craft, but hell I wouldn't know, since I'm essentially a career Lynx commander as it stands.

I will say that the Cutter, Lynx and yacht heel too much on Slow and Dead Slow sail settings, and also when sailing at 170 or 190.

Gunnery. It doesn't need to be any easier or any harder, though harder will come with inclement weather and bigger waves. As it should.

Ebb and flow of battles. You never truly know who will win. I've seen teams with weaker vessels across the board push it late. Despite some minor issues that have been mentioned elsewhere about sailing behavior, the ships are closely matched, but there are distinct differences enough. This is going to be epic when it is fully released.

So-so:

Damage model. I lost all my port cannons on a Lynx but all my cannons were still undamaged visibly and the crew was still working them. Like poster above, haven't seen any masts shot off, couple of bowsprits though. Had quite a few broadsides of balls fly over my head from close range and then I hear a loud crunch directly above and I'm like 'f*ck me that's her done there', but nope, not a scratch on the ol mast. Seen plenty of small fore sails torn up nicely, but despite repeated direct close range hits with chain the largest sails often seem impervious.

Noticed a few players are milking the win based advancement by lingering far outside the fight, I mean for an hour staying 1-2km further than anyone else from an enemy, surviving and getting a win and finishing the game without a scratch and 200-400 damage inflicted from long range shots while their teammates are half afloat and have anywhere from 1000-2000 damage inflicted. I would like to see a damage inflicted based advancement system at least until trials are over. My best performance yet was taking on 3 ships alone and sinking one and sunk a nearly a 2nd before they got me. I would trade 2 boring wins for credit from that one.

Hate:

It's been beaten to death already I know, but the lobby timer.

Ramming is a good deal overpowered. This sequence happened: I had hit an opponent with 4 broadsides early on in a 1v1, he tried two and missed and then turned and came towards me and rammed me at about 5 knots. I sprung 2 leaks, but hit him with a double at 5m, that was 5 broadsides within 100m. He turned back into me at about the same speed. Impact, game over. So the next match I though ok then I'll have a go at this ramming. Damaged someone bad enough with one ram that I sank him with 2 broadsides after. Next match didn't see it, but another super ram occurred and all the chat in game, and there were about 6 players at once from both teams, was all in agreement that the ramming is overpowered.

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First off I know this is a combat game...but what chance is there to learn when as soon as I am in the game I have three bigger ships fighting my yacht? Isn't there a neutral area where one can learn the controls before watching you ship torn apart within the first few minutes?

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-The intricacy of the graphics: Every stay, every halliard is right where it should be.

-The heel, general wind effects and affects: Though it (the heel) can be over the top at times, it's wonderful to play an age of sail game which demands actual seamanship combined with gunnery (Two areas I shall definitely need to brush up on). The satisfaction of tacking faster than your opponent and being able to roger his unprotected stern while he's helpless and in irons simply has no equal.

-The immersion. This game is a prototype alpha and it's already hard not to be immersed into the combat (I can only dream of the captivating effects of the full game). Despite what the forum said, I went into this test with incredibly high expectations and I was still completely blown away by it.

Dislike (I have a few peeves, but nothing I can say I hate):

-The ship progression system (as many others have pointed out) is a bit too slow. I agree with Hawke when he says it should revolve around the battles played to completion, rather than those won (at least for testing purposes).

-PVE balance. I've managed to get a few 1v1 matches in PVE, but they're usually against a brig and needless to say, my schooners will provide a facinating field trip for future deep sea divers.

-Lobby timer. I haven't had much trouble with people entering and leaving the lobby, but others are finding it quite troublesome. If the lobbies worked on a ready check basis, the game could start when all players within are good to go, rather than have to wait 60 seconds after the last person joins or leaves.

Other than that, all I can say is excellent work so far. I'm incredibly impressed with how the game is turning out and I have no doubt that it will soon become the best game for this genre.

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- First pve fights are horrible experience for newbies. All fights against stronger and more numbers opponents plus some people in battle just sailing away or went afk! in resluts sudden death for leftovers. Try do more balance at least same numbers. Lynx is weak and hard to win any battle with this ship. Sometimes dont understand whole damage bar visualisation - for example got half armour and 1 leak but suddenly get sunk...wierd.

- dont like lobby timer and random battles with random players. I know its testing version but...

- sometimes turning throught wind cause i lost control on my rudder, some people told me that i need turn other direction after...can anyone explain that?

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- sometimes turning throught wind cause i lost control on my rudder, some people told me that i need turn other direction after...can anyone explain that?

When you go straight into the winds you can get what is called ´in irons" you basically didnt had enough inertia to carry you over until the winds gets in your sail agains. So the wind basically push you back and you get "in reverse" so your rudder is basically inverted. This is an important part of sailing and it´s the first gsme to get it somehow right i think.

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I think ship progression might work better based on damage or number of ships sunk instead of total victories, at least in the alpha. I understand theneed for the progression (otherwise it'd be HMS Victory battles all day), but without a balanced team mechanism, it's not really fair at the moment.

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As I suggested, a damage inflicted based advancement system fixes all of that. There will be no benefit to running or disconnecting and you can still get progression points for fighting well even if your side loses.

The game is good to go imo. I think all the things the devs need to do right now it to just figure out what to add on top of this special game.

Improvement:

The boarding mechanic is meh but I guess the developers don't have the resources for a full fledged boarding action feature.

Spectator could use a free movement mode, I'm sure some guys out there would like to make some action footage of the battles with spectator mode.

Hate:

I hate going against the wind, as unrealistic as it seems I would suggest having the ships go at 2kts minimum.

Would also like to have ships removed from game after 5 minute afk, we had a game where there was an afk ship several kilometers in the distance and we had to sail the whole game against the wind to get him.

We need some warning of incoming ram. I sank a friendly ship without realizing it for a good 2 minutes because I was too busy aiming . It would seem realistic to me, surely someone sailor would warn the captain about an incoming ship.

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3. Heeling seems a bit over the top sometimes, obviously it is something that is necessarily a factor in a sailing game, but I have had multiple moments where I was literally a stone's throw, hell, a bowling ball's throw, from an enemy vessel and did not have the elevation/depression to effectively fire, in light to moderate winds.

Just before you fire, pull your sails so they are neutral with the wind, (going same direction.) Your ship will level enough to deal that crushing blow. Once you do hit auto captain. You won't lose that much speed if you make it quick. It will solve you concern

Spectator could use a free movement mode, I'm sure some guys out there would like to make some action footage of the battles with spectator mode.

Hit the home key you will undock the cameras, and the awds keys to move. Use mouse wheel to increase/decrease the speed of the camera. Hit home again to redock it.

I hate going against the wind, as unrealistic as it seems I would suggest having the ships go at 2kts minimum.

the only vessels that go into wind have engines on them . Sometimes you just have to tack and wear over and over to get up wind, it's how sailing works.

We need some warning of incoming ram. I sank a friendly ship without realizing it for a good 2 minutes because I was too busy aiming . It would seem realistic to me, surely someone sailor would warn the captain about an incoming ship.

This is where you need to realize you are the captain and crew. If you get tunnlevision and don't look up and around bad things can happen . We have all done this. The good news is that eventually it becomes second nature to remember to look at what's around you and where trouble may come from before you focus on your attack